CHICAGO—The design of the new Computer, Design, Research, and Learning Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) was recently released by architecture firms LMN Architects and Booth Hansen. The building has been designed to achieve LEED Gold certification.

Located at a unique prominent site on campus, the 135,000-square-foot center will consolidate the currently fragmented Computer and Science Department into a new home and co-locate it with a large cluster of university-administered classrooms at the heart of the east campus.

The building has been designed to be an inclusive and inviting space for the diverse student body. A public research university, UIC is one of the most diverse universities in the U.S.

The building will serve research needs with state-of-the-art facilities, accommodate the rapidly increasing undergraduate enrollment in computer science, and become a new campus hub.

Construction will begin in Spring 2021. With a slated completion date of Spring 2023, the new building will double its capacity. As a hub for both engineering and computer science, it will include research areas comprised of faculty offices, collaboration areas, a dry lab and specialty lab, administrative and student affairs office spaces, collaborative teaching and learning spaces for undergraduate and graduate students, an undergraduate learning and community center, and a flexible events room all connected by a five story daylit atrium.

“Together with the department, University, and CBD (Capital Development Board), our team of LMN and Booth Hansen have designed the building to become a welcoming hub, a building that embraces the old and presents an iconic new presence along Taylor Street,” said LMN Partner Stephen Van Dyck, AIA, in a statement.

Added Booth Hansen Principal David Mann, “Throughout the design process, we have been inspired by the convergences that this project represents. At the heart of it all is the convergence of UIC’s mission and the region’s growing Tech prominence. For so many in the region, this new building will symbolize opportunity. The new building will be located adjacent to one of the original Netsch buildings, near other College of Engineering facilities and Memorial Grove. This unique site allows for an innovative design that is inspired by the context, materiality, and qualities of precast concrete material,”

The project for the UIC is being administered by the Capital Development Board and will be bid to single prime contractors. Subcontractors will bid through the prime contractors. The cost of this project is not being disclosed at this time prior to bidding.

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Apparently, bond funds intended to pay for the projects have run out, and the state legislature did not include the projects in the new state budget, a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner told the Chicago Tribune.

Altogether, the state put more than $14 million toward five major campus projects that never surpassed their respective planning phases. Among the universities adversely affected are the University of Illinois at Chicago, Western Illinois University, Illinois State University, Northeastern Illinois University and Chicago State University.

The projects were part of the Illinois Jobs Now! initiative, a multi-year capital program that included $1.6 billion in spending authorized for higher education facilities like community colleges, state-owned schools and some private institutions as well. The state sold construction bonds totaling $16 billion to underwrite a substantial portion of the program. However, the state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, reported earlier this year, after conducting a bi-partisan study, that the program had died on the vine after having sold only $12.7 billion in capital bonds.

Moreover, university officials and project managers contend that even if the monies were to become available, at this stage, the original designs would require updating, which would incur additional expenditures. At this point, the only way the five affected universities could receive state capital funds to complete their stalled projects is to compete for the state’s limited annual capital dollars. Barring that, they could muster the political will to petition the current governor’s office and the state legislature to pass an additional multi-year capital program with the corresponding revenue it would require.

Ironically, former Gov. Pat Quinn, who originally signed the capital spending initiative into law during the first year of his term, attended groundbreaking ceremonies for several of the projects despite the fact that many of them were not yet ready for funding and remain unfinished.

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